I traveled to the Unites States in order to attend the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Atlanta and spend Thanksgiving with my family in Dubuque, Iowa.
But first I traveled to Chicago, where I arrived on Monday, November 15. I went immediately to the University of Chicago campus, where I met Fred Donner, my PhD advisor, in time to sit in on his 1:30 to 3:00 course on Islamic Origins and say a few words about Christians in the early Islamic period. That evening I attended a lecture by Gilbert Achcar about the Arabs and the Holocaust. The lecture was held at the International House, which provided a sizable refreshments buffet; it seems that it has recently become standard for university events to provide substantial refreshments, which was not the case when I was a student.
After the lecture I went with Fred to a dinner reception for the speaker at the home of Orit Baskhim, a new faculty member in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department whom I had not met before.
I stayed with Fred that night and the next day I had another full day meeting people on campus. I first met Walter Kaegi, the Byzantine historian who was another of my PhD advisors. I then met Donald Whitcomb and his graduate student Michael Jennings at the Oriental Institute to talk about my participation in Donald’s upcoming excavation project at the early Islamic palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar in Jericho. I then spoke with Natalie May, an OI research associate who is organizing a conference on iconoclasm. That evening I had dinner with Iman Saca, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, whom I have known since my years in the 1990s in Jerusalem. I stayed a second night at Fred Donner’s place; workmen were installing new windows during the days I was there.
Fred Donner below the workmen replacing his window
On Friday November 19 I attended the early morning meeting of dig directors in Jordan and then attended other academic sessions. I checked out of the Sheraton hotel and checked into the cheaper nearby Days Inn; the more expensive hotel bill for the first two nights was paid for by ASOR. That evening I met the Israeli archaeologists Katia Cytryn-Silvermann and Tawfiq Deadle. We went to the High Art Museum to see the Salvador Dali and Titian exhibits and then had dinner. On Saturday November 20, the final day of the conference, I attended various academic sessions and spoke at length with Tawfiq Deadle, whom I had not met before, especially about his work at the Mamilla Cemetery.
On Sunday November 21 I met Hamida, my former student and colleague from my years in India who now lives in Atlanta, and we went to the Botanical Gardens.
Me at the Botanical Gardens
ater in the afternoon I walked around the Olympic Park area, before heading to the airport for my flight to Chicago. After a delay, the plane left the terminal at 10:00, getting only as far as the runway before turning back due to a mechanical problem. The flight was eventually cancelled, and I got put up at the airport Sheraton, checking in at 1:00 am. I took a flight the next morning Monday November 22 to Chicago O’Hare, arriving at 11:30 am.
Traveling between Chicago and Dubuque is a problem. Airline tickets are very expensive and there is only one bus a day that leaves Chicago early in the morning. This time around I took the Van Galder airport bus to Rockford, where I checked into a Motel 6 for the night. In the afternoon I walked around the nearby shopping malls. The next morning, Tuesday November 23 I took the 8:15 am Trailways bus to Dubuque; other times I have rented a car in Rockford and driven to Dubuque.
For this visit to Dubuque, my parents arranged to have me stay in a newly established guest room at the Luther Manor retirement home where they stay. That was more convenient for me than staying in a hotel like my most recent trips. I was in Dubuque for a week and spent time going through old mail – mostly alumi magazines – that had accumulated since my last visit in August 2009 and sorting through my stuff stored in their garage. I also made several shopping trips, but did not buy much of anything.
This year Thursday November 25 was both Thanksgiving and my mother’s birthday. We went for Thanksgiving dinner to the house of my brother John and his wife Renee in Dubuque; my sister Linda and her friend Dennis came from Coralville, a suburb of Iowa City. On Saturday November 27, Mom and Dad and I drove to Coralville to visit Linda and Dennis. I had not seen the apartment where Linda lives before.
Back in Dubuque that evening I went to a presentation at Loras College by Louie Psihoyas about his career as a photographer – for many years with National Geographic – and the documentary movie, The Cove, that he directed and for which he won an Academy Award for best documentary this year. Louie was in my Dubuque Senior High School class of 1975, although I have not had any contact with him since then.
On Sunday November 28, I got the news that my visa to travel to Saudi Arabia had been approved, so I started to make arrangements for the trip there that I will soon make.
On Monday November 29 my parents drove me to Rockford, where I took the bus to O’Hare for my evening flight to Amman, via Heathrow.
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